Top officials at the FBI have been told to retire or be fired in the next few days as fears brew within the nation’s top law enforcement agency over the possible appointment of Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the new director.
More than 20 heads of FBI field offices, including in Miami and Washington D.C., have been told to leave the agency, according to NBC News. Top executives have been told they would be demoted or reassigned if they choose to stay. The executives are in charge of criminal, national security, and cyber probes. Since they’re civil servants, they cannot be fired without cause.
This comes as Trump officials are taking steps to fire FBI agents involved in investigations into the president over the next few days, two people familiar with the process told the Associated Press Friday. It remains unclear how many agents will be affected by the purge, but a large number were involved in Trump-related investigations. Officials taking direction from the White House have been moving to identify specific members of staff who took part in probes deemed politically sensitive to possibly remove them from the agency, the people said.
During an hourslong hearing on Thursday, Patel attempted to assure senators that he would not target Trump’s perceived enemies for retribution. The staffers given a choice to retire or be fired had been promoted under the leadership of Christopher Wray, the FBI director appointed during Trump’s first term who stepped down earlier this month, The New York Times reported.
A senior agent stated in an email to colleagues that he had been made aware that he would be removed from the “rolls of the FBI” as soon as Monday morning, according to the paper.
“I was given no rationale for this decision, which, as you might imagine, has come as a shock,” the agent wrote.
The assistant director in charge of the Washington FBI field office was made aware on Thursday that he was set to lose his job, according to NBC News. David Sundberg is the highest-ranking official to be removed so far.
Sundberg joined the agency in 2002 and was put in charge of the Washington field office in December 2022 by Wray. It’s one of the top field positions in the agency. Washington Field Office agents were involved in the investigations of former Special Counsel Jack Smith into Trump and the Capitol riot.
At least eight senior executives at FBI headquarters have been told to resign or be fired, according to NBC News. New hires include a Republican Capitol Hill staff member and a person close to Elon Musk, the head of the outside advisory panel known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Sundberg took on the investigation into the Capitol riot and the probe into the pipe bombs left at the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties on the night of January 5, 2021, which remains unsolved.
Senior agents had been anticipating major changes to take place under Trump because of Patel’s past promises to bring change to the agency. For instance, he has said that the FBI headquarters should be closed and turned into a museum of the deep state.
The requests for employees to retire or be fired have left staff stunned. It’s noteworthy that the requests came before a new director had been appointed. While directors of the FBI have more power over who they place in senior positions than leaders of other agencies, they tend to do so on a gradual basis. Brian Driscoll is currently the acting director of the agency.
The moves at the FBI are similar to measures taken at the Department of Justice, where prosecutors making major judgments on charging decisions have been fired or reassigned.
The senior officials asked to leave the FBI work both at the agency’s headquarters and in the field. A number of them have moved towards retiring or quitting, including one agent who worked on the FBI probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Another agent looking to leave was in charge of an investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.
During Patel’s confirmation hearing Thursday, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker pressed the nominee on the removals of almost a dozen career prosecutors at the Department of Justice who worked on Trump probes under Smith and whether similar measures would be taken at the FBI.
“Are you aware of any plans or discussions to punish in any way, including termination, FBI agents or personnel associated with Trump investigations?” asked Booker.
Patel said he had not been a part of the decisions at the Justice Department, adding: “I am not aware of that, Senator.”
This comes as the Trump administration is offering almost all federal employees to resign before February 6 and get paid through September 30. The notice was sent out on Tuesday afternoon in an email from the Office of Personnel Management. Those wanting to resign were told to reply to the email with the word “resign.”